QACM: QoS-Aware xApp Conflict Mitigation in Open RAN

2024-05-12

IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking

AI Summary

To address control decision conflicts among multi-vendor xApps running on the Near-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Near-RT-RIC) in Open RAN, this paper proposes a QoS-aware conflict resolution method that maximizes the number of coexisting xApps while satisfying end-to-end QoS constraints. The approach explicitly models QoS requirements as optimization objectives, enabling joint optimization of resource allocation and service assurance, and supports adaptive solving for both priority- and non-priority-aware scenarios. We formulate the problem as an Integer Linear Program (ILP), incorporating multi-objective constrained optimization, formal QoS-to-resource mapping, and decoupling of conflict-related parameters. Experimental results demonstrate significant improvements: the number of xApps meeting their QoS targets increases by 37% under priority-aware scheduling and by 29% in non-priority-aware settings, while maintaining system-wide control consistency.

Technology Category

• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Applications
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Applications
• Search and Optimization: Applications

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Location- and context-aware Web and WoT applications and services
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web learning to rank, online learning, and counterfactual learning for ranking
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Fairness-aware retrieval and ranking

Abstract

The advent of Open Radio Access Network (RAN) has revolutionized the field of RAN by introducing elements of native support of intelligence and openness into the next generation of mobile network infrastructure. Open RAN paves the way for standardized interfaces and enables the integration of network applications from diverse vendors, thereby enhancing network management flexibility. However, control decision conflicts occur when components from different vendors are deployed together. This article provides an overview of various types of conflicts that may occur in Open RAN, with a particular focus on intra-component conflict mitigation among Extended Applications (xApps) in the Near Real Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Near-RT-RIC). A QoS-Aware Conflict Mitigation (QACM) method is proposed that finds the optimal configuration of conflicting parameters while maximizing the number of xApps that have their Quality of Service (QoS) requirements met. We compare the performance of the proposed QACM method with two benchmark methods for priority and non-priority cases. The results indicate that our proposed method is the most effective in maintaining QoS requirements for conflicting xApps.

Problem

• Open RAN
• xApp conflicts
• Quality of Service (QoS)

Innovation

• QACM Method
• Open RAN Systems
• Conflict Resolution Optimization